Georges de la tour biography

Georges de La Tour is a Baroque painter renowned for his luminous religious paintings. He was born in in Vic-sur-Seille, Lorraine, to a family of bakers. Initially trained as a painter by his father before going on to study with other artists, La Tour gained acclaim for masterfully manipulating light and shadow.

La Tour&#;s style was particularly influenced by Caravaggio&#;s use of chiaroscuro or the interplay of light and shadow in his works. His paintings often feature everyday people like peasants portrayed with great sensitivity and dignity.

His early masterpiece, The Fortune Teller from the s, made him prominent in Upper Lorraine&#;s artistic circles. Although he spent most of his life in the Duchy of Lorraine &#; an independent state until temporarily absorbed into France from &#; many regard him as one of France&#;s greatest painters.

Unfortunately, La Tour was forgotten after his death until the twentieth century when scholars discovered previously misattributed works. They were able to recognize that what had been perceived as Dutch painting was instead likely French and identified them as La Tour&#;s pieces.

In conclusion, Georges de La Tour remains significant not

Georges de la Tour

Vic-sur-Seille - Lunéville

The French painter Georges de la Tour was born as the son of the master baker Jean de la Tour and Sibylle Mélian in Vic-sur-Seille, Lorraine in Georges de la Tour was the second of seven children of a simple family of craftspeople. In Georges de la Tour married Diane Le Nerf, the daughter of the duke of Lorraine's financial administrator in the small Lorraine town of Lunéville.
La Tour was a good and ambitious businessman, who soon became famous and wealthy and had a large workshop with numerous assistants. In Duke Heinrich II of Lorraine, who lived in Lunéville, bought a picture of "St. Peter" from La Tour. La Tour fathered at least 10 children. During the s pestilence and war haunted the Lorraine region and the soldiers of Louis XIII ravaged the country.
When, in , the city of Lorraine went up in flames, most of Georges de la Tour's early works were probably destroyed in the fire. In La Tour was mentioned as the official painter of Louis XIII in a deed ("peintre ordinaire du Roy"), so he must have been staying in Paris at the time.
In the painter Geo

Georges de La Tour

Early Years and Education

Georges de La Tour was born on 13th March in Vic-Sur-Seille, in the Diocese of Metz. The Diocese belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, but France ruled from His father, Jean de La Tour, was a baker. His mother was Sybille de La Tour. La Tour had six siblings. La Tour's education remains unknown, but scholars believe he traveled to Italy or the Netherlands in his early career.

Career

Caravaggio influenced La Tour's early work, which can easily be seen in his paintings. In the middle phase of his painting work, La Tour painted religious works. He painted them in the chiaroscuro style, using sharp contrasts of light and dark.

Georges de La Tour regularly painted subjects several times, which makes his surviving work quite small. Etienne, his son, was also his pupil. As a result, some versions of their work were very difficult to differentiate between.

In , La Tour set up a studio in his wife's hometown of Luneville, in the Duchy of Lorraine. In , he received the title Painter to the King. La Tour also worked for the Dukes of Lorraine in and His main clientele was the bourgeoisie, and he became well-know

Summary of Georges de La Tour

One of the greatest exponents of 17^th century Baroque painting, La Tour's mastery of chiaroscuro was such that he is often named as Caravaggio's natural successor. But La Tour's paintings, although relatively small in number, stand on their own terms for an economy of styling that charge his brooding candlelit scenes with a sense of enigmatic tranquility. La Tour's oeuvre shows a steady progression towards a uniquely minimalist style that would touch upon elements of symmetrical abstraction. Indeed, several historians have championed la Tour as the true progenitor of the Cubist movement. Although he was much admired in his own day, La Tour joins the exalted company of Piero della Francesca and Vermeer as canonical artists whose names and works had fallen into obscurity (and in La Tour's case, misattributed) before being rediscovered (and re-championed) by historians in the 20^th century.

Accomplishments